A takeaway restaurant’s owners have been taken to court after it was briefly forced to close following the discovery of rat poo, flies and other hygiene scares.
Earlier this month, on 12 March, Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court heard that since 2021, Perfect Peri Peri at 2 Broadway, West Ealing which sells pizza, kebabs, and burgers has not received a food hygiene rating higher than 2 out of 5 – which means ‘improvement necessary’. Out of 5 inspections, 3 of these resulted in a 0 rating (‘urgent improvement necessary’).
Ordered to close by council
On 1 February 2023, Ealing Council’s food safety team carried out an unannounced inspection of the takeaway restaurant. Officers uncovered evidence of a rat infestation, with faeces found throughout the premises, including near sauce containers, in store rooms and under sinks. Drain flies were also seen inside dough mixers in the basement and on boards used for preparing pizza dough. Conditions were exacerbated by a very poor standard of cleaning.
Perfect Peri Peri was ordered to close with immediate effect because officers believed it posed an imminent risk to public health. It was served with an emergency hygiene notice under the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013. The takeaway shop was reopened 3 weeks later once officers were satisfied that the necessary remedial works had been carried out.
On 12 March 2024, LHR Enterprise Ltd Trading (the food business operator) and the company director, Syed Biabani of Madison Heights, High Street, Hounslow pled guilty and were successfully prosecuted at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court for 4 food hygiene offences and were ordered to pay more than £19,000. This consisted of fines of £12,000 for LHR Enterprise Ltd Trading and £1,920 for Mr Biabani. The council was also awarded full costs associated with the investigation of £3,630 and the company were ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £2,000 to the court.
Protecting residents and supporting businesses
Councillor Louise Brett, the council’s cabinet member for decent living incomes, said: “This case is another great example of the hard work our food safety team do to ensure that all businesses in the borough are safe places to eat.
“Fly and rodent infestations put our residents at a very real risk of sickness and clamping down on those that are consistently non-compliant is essential to protecting our residents’ health. We will continue to support local businesses to ensure that all food sold in the borough is safe and legal.”
You can search online for a business’s food hygiene rating score.
For more information on food safety in the borough, visit the council website.
